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Johnisdead
Johnisdead '''is an ARG started in 2015 that has been ran by several GM's. The ARG acts as a fan-created sequel to Haunted Majora's Mask Cartridge story created by Alex Hall. The story of Johnisdead is told through videos, message board posts, and secret messages spread across numerous websites and YouTube channels. History In 2010, Alex Hall began writing the Haunted Majora's Mask Cartridge story that would later become colloquially known as "Ben Drowned". Beginning as a series on 4chan's paranormal board, Alex's story quickly began gaining traction once people found his YouTube channel, "Jadusable". The convincing footage of "actual video game hauntings" resulted in his story spiking in popularity, garnering him tens of thousands of views. After a solid week of uploads, the story took a sudden shift. A mysterious website called "Youshouldnthavedonethat.net" belonging to a cult known as the "Moon Children" was discovered. The story had become a fully fledged ARG. Viewers became players as they were tasked with solving ciphers and conversing with characters on this strange new website. Alex Hall soon introduced a truly unique gameplay mechanic into the ARG known as "Ocarina powers". This involved players recording gameplay footage from "The Legend of Zelda" series featuring themselves playing songs or using items which would have various results in the ARG. In early 2011, Alex Hall created a message board named "Within Hubris". These forums would act as a community hub for the players while also featuring occasional canon activity. Unfortunately, the ARG was placed under an indefinite hiatus shortly after Within Hubris became active, leaving the story unfinished. In 2012, the Within Hubris forums were shut down by the police and the Youshouldnthavedonethat.net domain was not renewed by Alex, resulting in the original site being lost forever. Though he claimed that one day the story would be concluded, Alex seemed more interested in exploring other projects, leaving the ARG's fate uncertain. By 2015, players had created their own Within Hubris. One day, a user named "thelaw" joined the forums and posted a strange website he had come across, "YSHDT.com". Players believed that perhaps this was the return of the Haunted Majora's Mask Cartridge ARG, but this was quickly debunked. This was an entirely new ARG building off of the story that Alex had created. This new ARG continued utilizing leftover ideas from Alex's story, tasking the players with analyzing videos, chatting with characters, and once again using their Ocarina powers. In May, 2015, the first arc of this new story came to a close. The GM for this arc was revealed to be "Dawn of a New Day" - a prevalent user from the Within Hubris community. He revealed that his story was only the first arc in a much bigger ARG. This ARG soon became known as "Johnisdead" - a fan-created sequel to Alex's incomplete story. However, Johnisdead did plenty to set itself apart from its predecessor. For example, while much of Alex's story was told though written word, Johnisdead had significantly more videos - most of which followed a structure more akin to vlogs. Johnisdead also integrated the playerbase into the story on a much greater level, with many interactions with characters playing out in real time through chatrooms. The ARG's main website, "Johnisdead.com", was not bound to any coherent structure like Youshouldnthavedonethat.net. The majority of pages on Johnisdead.com were free to be as cryptic, esoteric, and psychedelic as possible. This idea was explored to its fullest in mid-2015, when the the site took on a labyrinthine structure of interconnected pages, dead ends, and plenty of riddles. A virtual 3D environment was even explorable for a brief time which utilized the VR Browser JanusVR, adding on another layer of player interaction and immersion. In 2016, the GM's managed to purchase the domain for Youshouldnthavedonethat.net, which at that point had fallen into the hands of a Chinese URL scalping company. Throughout the rest of the year, Youshouldnthavedonethat.net was used for Johnisdead, which brought back many older members of the Within Hubris community who had become inactive. In 2017, Youshouldnthavedonethat.net became an archive, replicating its original appearance from 2010. In mid-2017, popular Spanish-speaking YouTubers BersGamer and Jordi Wild discovered Johnisdead and began covering the ARG on their channels. This resulted in a large influx of Spanish-speaking users joining the playerbase and boosting Johnisdead in popularity. Currently, Johnisdead is still ongoing, just recently having entered its seventh arc. Preliminary Reading The story of Johnisdead builds off of and expands upon the Haunted Majora's Mask Cartridge story created by Alex Hall. Because of this, a basic understanding of Alex Hall's story is necessary to fully understand Johnisdead. A summary of this story can be read here. For any further questions regarding the story of the Haunted Majora's Mask Cartridge, please refer to the Jadusable Wiki. It's also recommended that one has a fair understanding of the Nintendo 64 video game "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask" before attempting to read the story of Johnisdead. Many gameplay and story elements within both Alex Hall's story and Johnisdead derive heavily from Majora's Mask. Story The story of Johnisdead is told across seven arcs. Below is a brief summary of each one. '''YSHDT Arc The YSHDT Arc introduces a high school student named Doug and the sinister cult he has recently joined. Throughout this arc, players explore the cryptic YSHDT.com and chat with Doug to get their footing in this new story. Players converse with the mysterious entities Patrem and Helper while attempting save Doug and his friend Mason from the cult. Dead Arc The Dead Arc introduces the story proper. The cult is revealed to be the "Lunar Children", an offshoot of the "Moon Children" from the Haunted Majora's Mask Cartridge story. The players learn that their friend Tyler is being pursued by the cult who wish to sacrifice him to summon a goddess named "Luna". A rogue hacker named SKM and his ghostly companion Drowned work alongside the players in an attempt to ward off the Lunar Children before the date of Tyler's sacrifice, November 11th, draws near. Throughout this arc, players explore Johnisdead.com - a monolithic maze of cryptic riddles. Tyler also often posts updates on his YouTube channel Silentdork, giving the players valuable insight on his situation. Lunar Children Arc The Lunar Children Arc further explores the backstory of the Lunar Children and those who surround it. Tyler has been captured by the cult, but is narrowly saved thanks to the players. Unfortunately, a high ranking Lunar Child named Regiminis makes a deal with an ancient evil known as Tenebris and the two of them become far more powerful than before, making it clear that Tyler isn't safe quite yet. The Truth Arc The Truth Arc surrounds the return of the Moon Children's website, Youshouldnthavedonethat.net. Players are once again tasked with uncovering the truth of the cult while going through a continuous three day cycle. Through countless emails, difficult ciphers, and many Skype calls, the players finally manage to break the cycle and stop Luna's summoning. Greth Arc Following the chaos of The Truth Arc, the Greth Arc introduces a new protagonist named Greth - a former player who has recently started his own vlog channel. Strange things begin happening to Greth as he is stalked by unknown entities. Players now have multiple intertwining YouTube channels to keep track of and continuous Johnisdead.com updates. The arc ends with the reveal that Greth is possessed by Patrem who is now closer to Tyler than ever before. Astral Arc The Astral Arc introduces a new organization known as the "Astral Observatory". This group exists in an alternate timeline where the majority of the players have been killed off by an unknown assailant. The players work alongside their alternate selves to stop the Astral Observatory while meeting new faces. Our Horizon Arc The Our Horizon Arc is the current arc in the ARG and is currently ongoing.